Let's open the Word of God together this evening to the book of Ephesians and the second chapter,
Ephesians chapter 2.
From the lofty heights to the low valley, that's the route that Paul takes us in his
writing. After viewing the riches that belong to the child of God and praying
that we might know God and know who we are and what we possess in Christ, he now
in our text tonight returns to the low estate, the dark depths which all unsaved
occupy and from which every child of God has been delivered and raised. And you
were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to
the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all
formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and
of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rust. But God, let's
bow together. Our Father, I pray this evening that as we investigate your
record of our past, that our hearts would be renewed with gratitude for the grace
and mercy by which you intervened in our lives and saved us, not only from what we
were but where we were headed. In Jesus name, amen. One of the questions which we
did not get to last week in the fifth Sunday forum was this, if God knew in
advance what man was going to sin, why did he go ahead and create him? Have you
ever wondered that? God knows all things and if he knew in advance that this
creature was going to fall into sin, why did he go through with it all anyway?
Of course we can't understand the full answer to that because that is partly
hidden in the counsel of God. The secret things belong to the Lord. The Dr.
Lewis Bray Schaeffer writes these helpful words. He says, the purpose of God
incorporates vastly more than the mere rescue of sinners from their doom. As
wonderful as that rescue is. God is the designer and creator of all things. His
preservation is extended to all things and his providence is guiding all things
in order that, agreeable to his own sovereign will, all things may redound to
the praise of his glory and grace. To this end, that is to the praise of his
glory and grace, sin is permitted, its manifestation in the universe. First in
heaven, in Satan, and then upon the earth. A race is allowed to fall. A savior is
provided who by his death and resurrection declares to an infinite
degree the love and grace of God and the individual sinner according to divine
election is called and saved unto an eternal heavenly glory. One all-inclusive
decree extending its scope from eternity to eternity and wrought throughout on
the plane of infinity, must of necessity present unsolvable mysteries to a finite
mind. The permission and manifestation of evil, the advent and sacrifice of the
Savior, and the choice of an elect company which through all eternity is to
be a demonstration to all created intelligences of the marvels of divine
grace. Nevertheless, the revelation of this divine program is made and is to be
believed even though in all its parts it cannot be understood by the mind of man.
Why has God permitted evil? We don't know, except this, that by the manifestation of
evil God is able to manifest certain aspects of his divine nature which
otherwise might be difficult to perceive. His mercy, his grace, his love have been
poured out upon us and throughout all eternity to come to all created
intelligences as Dr. Schaeffer puts it. God is going to manifest those aspects
of his nature by what he does for us and by demonstrating what he did for us at
the cross. It might be helpful at this point just to review quickly our outline
of Ephesians. In chapters one through three the apostle writes about our calling
in Christ and in chapter one verses one through fourteen he speaks about the
blessings of our calling in Christ. Summarized in one word we would call them
salvation. The blessing of our calling in Christ is that God has saved us and all
that that entails is described in those verses especially verses three through
fourteen which comprise one sentence in the Greek language. And then he prays, he
interjects a prayer that we might know God and know who we are in Christ and
that that might make a difference. And then in verses 19 of chapter one through
chapter two and verse ten he talks about the basis of our calling in
Christ. The basis of our calling in Christ is our identification with him.
Our identification with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection and his ascension
for that matter is the basis upon which God saves us and treats us as his own
children. Our text tonight is a graphic description though of the past of every
child of God. Notice first your description. He talks about the condition
that you were in in verse one. He says and you were dead in your trespasses
and sins. Notice that this is not a charge that you sinned but rather it is
a description of the state of your soul before you were saved. Dead. Not merely
diseased, not just disfigured, but dead. Without life toward God separated from
him. This is not physical death now in this context for he's talking to people
who were very much alive physically but he is saying you were dead
spiritually and the cause of that was your trespasses and sins. This death and
sins means a total inability to respond to God apart from the miracle of
regeneration. The sinner is incapable of responding to the gospel until he is
given the ability to do so through the new birth. Now actually regeneration or
the new birth occurs at the same time as faith is extended in to the Lord Jesus
Christ but logically, logically speaking, regeneration must come first because a
dead person can do nothing. He must first be brought to life and then be able to
believe. Our death in trespasses and sins was inherited from our father Adam. By
one man sin entered into the world Romans 512 and death by sin. He willfully
disobeyed God and death followed. Spiritual death immediately he was
separated from God. Physical death eventually 900 and some years after his
birth and ultimately second death would have been his had it not been for the
grace of God that saved him. He could only reproduce after his kind like all
the rest of God's creation and so as a fallen creature Adam and Eve bore
children. Children who were likewise sinners and who likewise inherited death.
We inherit from him our fallenness and we inherit from him as well this
threefold death. Every baby that is born into the world is born dead in
trespasses and sins. This does not mean that the corruption of sin has had its
full course in us. When we talk about being dead in trespasses and sins it
does not mean the unsafe people are incapable of doing relative good because
they can do good. Unregenerate people people are capable of natural good of
moral good of relative good. In fact it's sad to say but there are some unsafe
people who live better lives, gooder lives if you please and some of God's
own children. But that kind of good does not compare with ultimate good or
spiritual good. We talk about the total depravity of the sinner. That means every
part of the sinner is depraved. No part of him escapes the effect of sin. His
depravity renders him without spiritual life, incapable of doing ultimate good
and without hope in himself as far as salvation is concerned. He is dead
utterly without hope apart from Jesus Christ. Now my friend that is a
description of you and the condition of your soul. If you've never trusted Jesus
Christ that is a description of your soul tonight as you sit here in this
room. If you are a child of God it is a description of your soul in its
condition before you were saved. In verses 2 & 3 he focuses not on the
condition so much but the outgrowth of that the conduct the conduct by which
you were noted. He says in general in verse 1 that was characterized by
transgressions that is false steps, deviations from the right path, going off
straying away and also by sins. The word sin here means to miss the mark. It
refers to acts, thoughts, and words that miss the mark of pleasing God and notice
that both of these are in plural trespasses, sins. Referring to the habit
of life the conduct was habitual in sin, dominated by sin, by transgressions and
then he begins to elaborate more fully. In fact there are three further
delineations of our conduct because we were dead in trespasses and sins. He
talks about the direction of the world in which we lived. He talks about the
dictation of Satan, the domination of the flesh. Do you notice that the world,
Satan, the flesh, those are the masters of the unregenerate. The masters of the
unregenerate are the enemies still of the Christian, the world, the flesh, and the
devil. But for those who are outside of Christ, those who have no life in Christ,
these are their masters, the world. He says that before you were saved you walked
according to the course of this world. That was your conduct. The world
dominated you. The word world here means the arrangement, the order of things
that now controls the world population. It is the system of thought, of culture,
motivation that characterizes the present order of things as they are. We
walked according to the course of this world. I think the Schofield Bible has
perhaps the finest summary of what the world is of any that I've read. It says
in the sense of the present world system, the ethically bad sense of the world
refers to the order or arrangement under which Satan has organized the
world of unbelieving mankind upon his cosmic principles of force, greed,
selfishness, ambition, and pleasure. This world system is imposing and powerful
with military might, is often outwardly religious, scientific, cultured, and
elegant, but seething with national and commercial rivalries and ambitions is
upheld in any real crisis only by armed force and is dominated by Satanic
principles. John tells us that the world involves the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life. Passions, possessions, and position. That's
the essence of the world and what motivates it, what it seeks. The unsaved
person is dominated by these things, by passion, by the desire for possessions, by
position and power. Those are the things that are important to the unsaved
person because he conducts himself according to the course of this world.
The word course is an interesting word. It surprises you as you investigate it
because this is the word that is translated elsewhere, age. He says you
walked according to the age of this world. This word, Iona, refers to the
current mood, the changing fads as they happen to be at any particular point in
history. And so what he's saying is that unsafe people are dominated by the
current fads of the world system. Whatever is involved at that particular
point, that is what masters them and controls them. Hendrickson says it is the
environment in which you formerly moved about freely, feeling perfectly at home,
conducting yourselves in complete harmony with the spirit of the age that
marks mankind alienated from the life of God. That's the world, the age of this
world. Now not only did the world dominate you and me before we were saved, but we
were dominated as well by that being which dominates the world system. And that
is the prince of the power of the air, as he is called, the spirit that is now
working in the sons of disobedience. This prince is a ruler. He is the ruler of the
kingdom of the air, literally is how it's put here. He is the one in whom all the
world lies, 1st John 5 19. He is the God of this world, 2nd Corinthians 4 4, that
blinds the unsaved so that they might not see the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ. And it says regarding this evil being Satan, this spirit, that he is now
working. The word working means that he is energizing, he is exerting influence
and force. Notice that he's not just exerting influence on a particularly
evil class of people, but he is exerting influence, he is energizing or working in
the sons of disobedience. That refers to all of the unregenerate. That does not
mean that all unregenerate people are satanic or demon possessed. But what it
does mean is that because they are spiritually dead and cut off from God, that
the force that is exerted upon them, that energizes them in their life is
satanic in its origin. Just as all of the children of God are energized by the
spirit of God, according to Philippians 2 13. It is God who is working in you, same
word, working, both the willing and doing of his good pleasure. Just as God is
exerting influence upon and working in, energizing his children, so Satan is
energizing and working in the sons of disobedience as they're called. We'll
come back to that phrase in a moment. But notice that further he says regarding
the unsaved that they are dominated by the flesh. He says we live in the lusts
of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. The unsaved
are controlled by a fallen nature. You were unsaved at one point, if you've
trusted Jesus Christ. You were unsaved before that point when you believed on
him and were controlled by sin. You were enslaved to it. Now one who is enslaved
to sin may appear to be reputable. That sin may be outward and overt and evil and
wicked and those kinds of people are easily marked. But never forget that even
the cultured person, the civilized person, the quote person of reputation in the
community who does not know Jesus Christ, that person is just as controlled by sin
as that person who's out in still water tonight in prison. Every unsaved person
is dominated by that fallen nature that is within him and that flesh, that
fallen nature even perverts his thinking process. It involves his mind so that
his ability to reason, the calculations of his mind are twisted and perverted
by sin. He is totally involved in it. Not a very happy description of the
unsaved person. Not a very pleasant description of you before you were saved,
but this is where God says we were. Dominated by the world, dominated by
Satan, dominated by the flesh. He now describes to us the condition of our
souls along with the conduct that characterized us, but now he tells us of
the company that we kept at that point. The sons of disobedience he calls them.
This phrase is used again in chapter 5 and verse 9 of the same epistle or verse
8 rather. Well let's try verse 6 back up a little bit more. He says let no one
deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes
upon the sons of disobedience. He's talking here about people, unsaved
people, who are distinctively characterized by disobedience. This
phrase sons of disobedience is a Semitic expression. It refers to those who
spring from disobedience as the mother who gave them birth. Their disobedience
may be very active, it may be passive, but it is there nonetheless. They are in
rebellion against God. There's opposition to God in their lives. They are the sons
of disobedience, born of disobedience, and it says that before we were saved
those are the people we ran around with. That was our company. As the old saying
goes birds of a feather flock together. Company discloses character. You look to
see who a person fellowships with and you'll find out something about that
person. It is very natural for an unregenerate person to find company with
other unregenerate people because they have things in common. They spring
likewise from disobedience, both of them. Their conduct is in the same direction,
dominated by the world, by Satan, by the flesh, and that's because of the
condition that they're in. They are dead in trespasses and sins. Now when God
saves us our company changes. I believe that we need to maintain as many
contacts as we can for as long as we can with our unsaved friends. But the fact is
that eventually your unsaved friends, if they don't come to Christ, are probably
going to click you off and be done with you because you're no longer in the same
condition they are, conducting yourself like they do. You're no longer keeping
company with them as you once did. Now verse 3 he describes our destiny. He
says, you were by nature children of wrath even as the rust. Wrath here refers
to the judgment of God. It is a word which means God's settled indignation. It
is not a word for anger, which usually refers to a flash, an outburst of
emotion. But this word wrath has to do with a deep abiding indignation which
God has towards sin and sinners. If God were to express his anger he would be
knocking off sinners with outbursts of it. But that isn't the way that God
operates. The Bible speaks of God's wrath. It is deep, it is settled, it is permanent,
it will never change towards sin, but it's not always expressed at the moment.
But forever keep in mind that it will ultimately be expressed. It might be
compared to a volcano beneath which sets this lake of lava, of rock that is
molten, and there it stays and it stays and it stays for years and decades, maybe
centuries, until there is a vent, until there is pressure exerted perhaps through
an earthquake, and suddenly that hot lava goes up through the ground and out the
surface and is exposed. So it is with God's wrath. It is resting, it is settled,
it is permanent, it is a part of his very nature. God hates sin. And one day that
sin, rather that wrath, will be vented against all sin. And that was our destiny
friends. God's wrath will inevitably come upon the sons of disobedience. Even now
it abides upon the unbelieving, John 3.36. And notice that it is by nature, it
is naturally that this is so. That the sons of Adam, who are unregenerate, will
one day be the recipients of the wrath of God. Time does not permit that we could
go back to Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 18, and read of the wrath of God
that is righteously going to be expressed upon all of those who are
disobedient and unbelieving. And so the Apostle here gives to you your
description. What you were like, what the condition of your soul was before you
were saved, you were dead. He tells you about your conduct, it was in trespasses
and sins. You were enslaved to the world. Satan worked in your life, exerted his
influence in you. The flesh was indulged, even your very reasoning ability, your
mind, the way you thought, was perverted by sin. Does any of that sound familiar?
And he says the company that you kept was that of the sons of disobedience. And
you were on your way to experience the wrath of God which you deserved. I
conclude with the last two words, the first two words of the last verse we
read, verse 4, but God. I think that those are the two most significant words in
this whole chapter because on these two words there rests a pivot of Paul's
thought. He says here is what you were, here is the way you lived, here are the
people you ran with, this is what you deserve because of it, but God. And now he
describes your deliverance. He says God intervened, he did not allow you to reap
what you sowed, he did not permit you to receive what you rightly deserve, he did
not allow you to remain in your condition, to continue in your conduct and
to keep your old company. God in his grace intervened and saved you from all
that.
Henriksen says the more men learn to see the dimensions of their utterly lost
condition, the more they will also by God's grace appreciate their marvelous
deliverance. What is the benefit of studying a passage like this? Indeed why
did the Spirit of God cause Paul to write these words? Is it not that you and
I might keep in mind what we were? Is it not that we might be constantly refreshed
in our memories to see what we deserved but God intervened? But for the grace of
God where we will be headed in our destiny, revisiting our past is not a
pleasant thing to do, but it surely renews, I trust, our appreciation for the
grace of God. For remember there was nothing in us that caused God to look
upon us with favor particularly. God did not intervene because he saw that we
were trying hard or because somehow we were born in the United States and had
white skin and spoke the English language. God did not intervene because
we were pretty nice people, because we weren't. There was nothing to
distinguish us in our fallenness, in our sin from every other person in the world
who's lost. That God who is rich in mercy and rich in grace reached down with his
hand, took hold of us, and lifted us up out of that miry clay from the pit where
we were and set our feet on the rock. Is there any wonder that Newton overcome by
the degradation of his own life as an immoral slave trader and then saved by
God's grace? Could write the words amazing grace. How sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, now I'm found, was blind, and now I see.
Let's bow together. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Lord, ever remind us, I pray, of the grace that you have manifested
to us. We might be called into the fellowship of your Son, undeserved,
unmerited kindness indeed, and all yours. And oh what a price you paid in your
Son so that we might have that grace. Thank you that all of the sin and guilt, the
degradation and depravity of our past is forgiven for Jesus' sake. Oh thank you
Father that he came and died for us and bore our hell, absorbed your wrath in
himself so that we might be delivered from the destiny we deserve. And not only
delivered from that but given a new destiny to be exalted with him on his
very throne of glory, hallelujah. Thank you. Remind us afresh of what you've done
for us and give us hearts of compassion for those who are still exactly like
what we've read tonight. And may we love them and go after them and seek to win
them for Christ. And then I pray that the depth of forgiveness that you have
extended to us for Jesus' sake will be the kind of forgiveness that we extend
to one another when we sin against each other. Forgiving one another even as God
has forgiven you, may that be the pattern of our lives as believers. In Jesus' name,
amen.